Health and safety at corporate events – your essential checklist

Before you can give your corporate event the ‘wow’ factor, you need to get some essentials in place to ensure the smooth running of the event – this is something that all event organisers will know. Health and safety should be your top priority, before you start adding fancy lighting to your event tent or rolling out the red carpet.

Here are the five essential areas you need to investigate and check off your list, to make your corporate event safe:

  1. Capacity. Before you do anything else, make sure your chosen venue has enough capacity – as specified by fire safety authorities – for all of your guests, as well as staff members, entertainers, vendors and volunteers. If you’re holding your event in an event tent, you still need to check the capacity, even if your event is in summer and you plan to have parts of your large marquee structure ‘open’.

 

  1. Temporary structures (i.e. stages and platforms). According to the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), event organisers need to use contractors who specialise in temporary demountable structures (TDS) for everything from the design to the final installation of the stage or platform. You need to provide accurate details on what the structure will be used for, by how many people and the weight of equipment placed on it.

 

  1. Risk assessment.  If you feel you lack the knowledge or experience (or time), instruct a professional to carry out a full assessment of all potential hazards. These include obstacles and tripping hazards, fire safety issues, electrical safety, flammable materials and anything else that could potentially cause harm. You need to think through every possible worst case scenario, no matter how remote the chances of it happening, and have a plan in place.

 

  1. Emergency routes, lights and signage. Signs pointing to fire escapes and emergency exit routes, as well as emergency lighting (if the power goes out) and all relevant health and safety signage, are required by law at public events. Don’t forget to fit smoke detectors and fire alarms (or test them if already installed) and designate an assembly point in case of evacuation, placing more signage to tell people where it is. Signage and lighting are easy to fit in a versatile venue like an event tent, often used for corporate events.

 

  1. Training. Whatever safety plans you put in place, every member of your team needs to know about them. You should carry out basic training to ensure that every steward and staff member knows enough about your safety plans to instruct delegates at your event.

Responsible event organisers will have a list of safety precautions twice as long as this one, but these are the essentials to tick off in order to ensure a safe and productive event. Remember, if you need any advice about safety in event tents, one of the Amazing Tents team will be happy to help.


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